I have been invited to my former primary school to work with some of the students and teach astronomy. I do not know what to expect, as I approach the school flash backs of my primary years go through my head. I remember the parades and the CATS (continuous assessment exams) and my teachers. Are some of them still here? Are they going to remember me? I approach the administration block, which is a new building that did not exist when I was there. I go to the secretary’s desk and inform them that I had been scheduled to work with some students. The secretary requests me to wait for her as she confirms with the head teacher. She takes my information and points at a chair that I can sit.
I am tt the school with Jonah, who is also a former student of the same school. He is also very excited as he points to me where the school canteen is and some of his classrooms. As we wait for further instructions, a lady walks towards us with a beautiful smile. She greets us and walks to the head teacher’s office. Later we realize that the lady is the contact teacher we are supposed to work with. She informs us that she can let us work with all the students from class six to eight but we are only two and cannot handle 300 students in 2 hours. I request for a smaller number of students and we settle for class six students.
The teacher organizes the students in the school hall and we are escorted to the hall. As we walk there we meet one of my former teachers, mathematics teacher to be precise. She is so excited to meet us, she volunteers to introduce us to the students. She hugs us and finds out about how we have been fairing on with our lives. When we get to the hall, Mrs. Loyelo, my former mathematics teacher introduces us to the students. She keeps telling us that she is happy and proud of both Jonah and I.
Jonah starts by introducing the team and Hands-on Universe and why we are there. He asks the students if they like science and think that it is fun and some of them say they find it boring and full of some many diagrams. We promise to have fun with them and they all become excited.
After Jonah introduces the group, I take them through the Earth and how we need to take good care of it, I also teach them about our solar system and introduce the laws of gravity. The students have fun and are excited to participate in all the activities when we request them. They also ask many question. The most interesting part of our session was when I introduced them to Stellarium and Celestia. They were all amazed by the beauty of most of the planets that they knew by name. I explained to them why Pluto was demoted as a planet and that it is a dwarf planet.
We distribute the students into 10 groups and give them different materials to mould planets, paint planets and draw planets. The students chose planets of their choice and begun working on different projects. After the session we gave the groups a chance to present their work to the rest of the class. Some students wrote beautiful poems and shared them with the classroom, others wrote beautiful stories and others molded planets and other celestial bodies.
Two volunteers with 100 students, Jonah most of the time had to assume the role of the photographer and I the filmmaker. We were exhausted after almost three hours at the school and left the school tired, hungry but fulfilled. We hope to return again and work with more students. It was also fulfilling returning to a place I call home. My school many years back. Seeing some of my teachers and visiting some places made me realize that I have a huge role to play as an African female astronomer and i hope I will visit many otehr such schools.
This trip was sponsored by FourTell eAfrica Ltd
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